Tosin Abasi and Animals as Leaders

Brainphreak and Tosin Abasi at "the Metro" in Oakland, CA

I had the great honor and pleasure of meeting and getting a guitar lesson from Tosin Abasi this week! His amazing band Animals as Leaders was in Oakland so I ventured on over to the "Metro" before the show to meet him with my new custom Halo for an hour lesson. Tosin is not only an amazing player, but an amazing guy who is well educated and easy going. He proceeded to teach a few different techniques he has used in his writing, the most unique was his use of major and minor arpeggios mixed (top and bottom halves) and then moving them up the neck tonally so that you get a giant pattern that covers the neck and not only outlines the chords but has both major and minor sound and wide intervals making the riffs seem extra speedy. Tosin talked about a few influences and gave recommendations of various guitar instruction videos, most I was already familiar with (Steve Morse Power Lines, Guthrie Govan etc.).

Overall this was an amazing experience to not only meet Tosin, but to get a personal guitar lesson and then shortly after the entire band took the stage and tore it up! I have some video down below which I took from the very front. I also have a link and you can download the entire show if you wish! I highly recommend it! Its heavy, its mellow, and there are no vocals to mess things up!

For those not familiar: Animals as Leaders is an American, Washington, D.C.–based instrumental progressive metal band, formed by guitarist Tosin Abasi in 2007 which now includes guitarist Javier Reyes and drummer Navene Koperweis. The self-titled debut album was released in April 2009 by Prosthetic Records. Tosin Abasi and Javier Reyes are also members of the supergroup T.R.A.M alongside former The Mars Volta wind instrumentalist Adrian Terrazas and Suicidal Tendencies drummer Eric Moore.

Animals as Leaders "CAFO" Official Music Video

Live footage I took from right up front! (Also in 3D!)

Download the Full Show in 3D! (Anaglyph Red/Blue)

3D Photography: Am I Too Old For Toys?

Micro Machines

3D SBS (Cross-eyed Format)

 3D Anaglyph (Red/Blue Glasses)

Recently I have been looking online at pictures of all my favorite old toys that I grew up with. I remember the quality of the toys were much better back then, funner to play with, more unique, cost less, were not obsolete in 3 days, and they were much harder to break! I think my 'elders' told me these same things of their toys. My all time favorite before video games consumed my childhood was M.U.S.C.L.E. men figures and Micro Machines. Anyone who grew up in the 80's had to have been exposed to these great toys, and most boys my age owned at least a few. I have to admit, in my troubled youth I spent plenty of days inside the department store unsupervised trying to figure out the safest/easiest way to remove these toys from their protective pouch and get them into my pockets... I always found a way, and ended up with quite a large collection which was later stolen from me by a childhood friend who moved away. *karma?*

In tribute to some of the best memories I have as a child I took these 3D photos of my favorite toys, re-collected through the power of ebay. If it brings out any fond memories from your floppy grey matter, feel free to post!

M.U.S.C.L.E. Men

3D SBS (Cross-eyed Format)

 3D Anaglyph (Red/Blue Glasses)

M.U.S.C.L.E., (Millions of Unusual Small Creatures Lurking Everywhere), was a toyline of 2-inch tall monochromatic PVC gum wrestling figures produced in the United States from 1985 to 1988. The story involved intergalactic wrestlers fighting for supremacy of the universe. The toy line itself was straight forward and collectors continue to make the line a viable hobby. The US line included 236 official figures, a boardgame, a NES game entitled M.U.S.C.L.E., a championship belt figure holder, and a wrestling ring playset. The figures were distributed in clear, blister-packed random 4-packs, semiopaque garbage can 10-packs, and boxed fixed sculpt 28 packs.

Micro Machines: The Original Scale Miniatures (called either "Micro Machines" or simply "Micros") were a line of toys originally made by Galoob (now part of Hasbro) in the mid 1980s and throughout the 1990s. Galoob licensed the idea behind Micro Machines from Clem Heeden, a toy inventor from Wisconsin. Micro Machines were tiny scale component style "playsets" and vehicles that were slightly larger than N scale. Although Micro Machines have not been sold in the United States in some years, newer models are available in the UK, Europe and the outlets in the US now also once again sell Micro Machines. Early Micro Machines television commercials were famous for featuring actor John Moschitta, Jr., who is listed on the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's fastest talker.

Amazing: These toys are all over 20 years old and still as good as new
If it doesn't say Micro Machines, it's not the real thing!
I miss the 80's

"Pain" Experimental Song and 3D Video!

*3D Options Available Only On Youtube*
View On Youtube

I was playing around with Garageband for ipad the day after watching the Residents perform Talking Light a couple weeks ago. I came up with some stuff that was probably a bit inspired by the show, then wrote some lyrics regarding my early life and sang into the itty bitty mic on the ipad for vocals. The result is a kinda low fi demo, but it was scary and personal enough for me to share. I also have been wanting to experiment with multiple layers of 3D video and editing them together. I took my fuji w3 3D camera out in the garage and took some random 3D video of artwork and wind chimes. I came back and quickly spliced them together with the song. Hope you like the result and it doesn't give you a headache! Unless you like that sort of thing... Warning this is VERY experimental, and your eyes may pop out of your skull watching it. I will not be held responsible for your struggle to focus on floating non important objects.

If you like the song enough to listen to it without the video here is the MP3 for our eyePod: Brainphreak - Pain.mp3

*Note: No REAL instruments were used or harmed in the making of this song. Everything done using Garageband on the iPAD. Lyrics are embedded inside the mp3.